IV Reserve Corps (German Empire)

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The IV. Reserve Corps was a large unit of the army of the German Empire , between July 24, 1916 and December 22, 1917, the General Command on the Eastern Front was called " Carpathian Corps "

structure

At the beginning of the war, the corps was subordinate to the 1st Army and structured as follows:

  • 7th Reserve Division
    • 13th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • 14th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • 1st Heavy Reserve Cavalry Regiment
    • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 7
    • 4th Company / Engineer Battalion No. 4
  • 22nd Reserve Division
    • 43rd Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • 44th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Hunter Regiment on Horseback No. 1
    • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 22
    • 1st and 2nd Reserve Company / Engineer Battalion No. 4

history

With the mobilization on August 2, 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War , the corps was set up.

Hans von Gronau

On August 2, 1914, General Hans von Gronau was appointed commanding general of the IV Reserve Corps on the Western Front . The corps marched with the 7th (General Bogislav Friedrich von Schwerin ) and 22nd Reserve Division (General Otto Riemann ) as part of the 1st Army through neutral Belgium in northern France. General Kluck planned to continue the advance on August 24th, and his three front corps were assigned to the area west of Bavay. For an intended encirclement of the BEF under John French , he also used the II Army Corps and the IV Reserve Corps to reinforce his right wing. These associations, which were still a long way off on the 23rd, were to advance in the direction of Condé on August 24th. After the Battle of Mons , the British II Corps under General Horace Smith-Dorrien had withdrawn fighting on Le Cateau-Cambrésis . In the following battle on August 26th, the advance of the IV Reserve Corps via Solesmes forced the British II Corps to give up its positions. The Somme region was crossed between August 28th and 30th , followed by a battle near Creil on September 2nd and the further advance to the Marne . On September 5th, General Kluck had already crossed the Marne with three corps to threaten the French 5th Army on the flank and rear. Only the IV Reserve Corps covered its right flank against attacks from the north-eastern fortress area of ​​Paris. In order to get better reconnaissance results, General von Gronau ordered a limited attack of his corps to the west. At St. Souppletz the corps unexpectedly encountered strong French forces. The threat of a French flank attack by the French 6th Army (General Maunoury ) was uncovered. When the IV. Reserve Corps was attacked, it initially fought back an enemy division, but then withdrew to Thérouanne about 10 kilometers east by evening . On September 6th, the pursuing French pushed the corps back to Étrépilly until 3 p.m. After the intervention of the II and IV Army Corps (General Sixt von Armin ), the corps received sufficient support from its opponent. After the battle of the Ourcq , there was a general retreat behind the Aisne . During the Battle of the Aisne, the IV Reserve Corps remained at Nouvron as a reserve on the north bank of the river.

During the Serbian campaign in 1915 , the corps under General Winckler with the subordinate 105th and 107th divisions and the 213rd Brigade (Heydebreck) forced the Danube crossing between Dunadombo and Kevevara in the center of the 11th Army (Gallwitz) on October 7th and 8th against the Serbian 1st Army under General Živojin Mišić near Kostolac . After the conclusion of this campaign on the Albanian border, the corps was transferred to the Macedonian front , where, after the 107th Division had been surrendered in the spring of 1916 in the area south of Prilep, it was in positional warfare against the Allied army under General Maurice Sarrail .

Richard from Conta

During the transfer of the General Command to the Eastern Front , Lieutenant General Richard von Conta was appointed Commanding General on July 21, 1916 , the 1st and the newly formed 200th Division were assigned to the Corps, and the 117th Division at the end of August . From July 24, 1916 to December 22, 1917 it was subordinate to the Austro-Hungarian 7th Army under General Kövess and was officially known as the Carpathian Corps . The corps was in the north of the Romanian front between Ludowa and Moldava in trench warfare and was at the complete reconquest of in August 1917 Bukovina involved.

In the spring of 1918 the corps relocated to the western front again, initially stood in the promontory of St. Mihiel and was added to the Hutier army for the spring offensive . For Operation "Michael", which began on March 21, the 33rd , 34th , 37th were subordinate to the "Corps Conta" . and 103rd division . The attack across the Crozat Canal near Tergnier on the left wing of the 18th Army reached Noyon via Chauny on March 24 , where the French 34th Corps under General Nudant stopped the advance by counter-attacks across the Oise and Conta forced a strong advance Build front to the south. On May 27, the German operation "Blücher-Yorck" began, for this so-called Third Battle of the Aisne the IV Reserve Corps of the 7th Army ( Boehn ) was assigned. In this attack, General Conta was subordinate to the 10th and 28th Divisions , as well as the 5th Guard Division , the 103rd Division and the 36th Division followed as reserves in the 2nd meeting. The attack took place in the Corbeny-Craonne area, together with the XXV. Reserve Corps (Winckler) the Chemin des Dames was completely conquered, the Vesle at Bazoches was forced on the following day and the Marne reached at Château-Thierry by May 30th . At the beginning of June, during the Battle of Belleau Forest , the regiments IR 402 and IR 403 - the 201st Division - were assigned to the unit, followed by a month-long trench war . In the Second Battle of the Marne , the IV Reserve Corps then attacked further east in the Dorman area across the Marne. From 15 to 17 July 1918 which brought group Conta the 37th , 113th and 10th Reserve Division with difficulty on the southern banks of the Marne, and together with the divisions of the Western-standing group Wichura a beachhead. Even the deployment of the 2nd Guards Division could not turn things around, counter attacks by the newly formed French 9th Army forced a general retreat. Finally, by the end of July, the 7th Army had to evacuate the Marne arc and at the beginning of August the starting positions from the end of May were resumed.

At the end of the war in October 1918, the corps (in the section of the 2nd Army ) had the 14th Division (Karl von Kraewel), the 58th Division (Woldemar Graf Vitzthum) and the 18th reserve during the defensive battle between Cambrai and St. Quentin -Division (Theodor von Wundt), the 30th Division (Franz von der Wenge Graf von Lambsdorff) and the 44th Reserve Division (Major General Otto Haas).

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
General of the artillery Hans von Gronau August 2, 1914 to September 10, 1915
Lieutenant General Arnold von Winckler September 11, 1915 to March 24, 1916
Lieutenant General Richard from Conta July 21, 1916 to December 20, 1918

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in the World War 1914–1918 , Military Publishing House Karl Siegesmund, Berlin 1937, p. 88
  2. ↑ a b c Dermot Bradley (ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939 Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939 , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 , p. 627